Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans,
Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost.
BED. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse? Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns
Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death. GLO. Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up?
If Henry were recall'd to life again,
These news would cause him once more yield the ghost.
EXE. How were they lost? what treachery was us'd?
MESS. No treachery; but want of men and money.
Amongst the soldiers this is muttered,—
That here you maintain several factions;
And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and fought,
You are disputing of your generals.
One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost;
Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings;
A third man thinks, without expense at all,
By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd.
Awake, awake, English nobility!
Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot:
Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms;
Of England's coat one half is cut away.
EXE. Were our tears wanting to this funeral,
These tidings would call forth her flowing tides.
BED. Me they concern; regent I am of France :
Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France.
Away with these disgraceful wailing robes!
Wounds will I lend the French, instead of eyes,
To weep their intermissive miseries.
2 MESS. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance: France is revolted from the English quite;
Except some petty towns of no import:
The dauphin Charles is erowned king in Rheims;
The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd;
Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part;
The duke of Alençon flieth to his side.
EXE. The dauphin crowned king! all fly to him!
O, whither shall we fly from this reproach?
GLO. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats :-
Bedford, if thou be slack, I 'll fight it out.
a Man is omitted in the original.
BED. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness?
An army have I muster'd in my thoughts,
Wherewith already France is overrun.
3 MESS. My gracious lords,-to add to your laments,
Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearse,—
I must inform you of a dismal fight
Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French.
WIN. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is 't so?
3 MESS. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown:
The circumstance I'll tell you more at large.
The tenth of August last, this dreadful lord,
Retiring from the siege of Orleans,
Having full scarce six thousand in his troop,
By three-and-twenty thousand of the French
Was round encompassed and set upon :
No leisure had he to enrank his men;
He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confusedly,
To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.
More than three hours the fight continued;
Where valiant Talbot, above human thought,
Enacted wonders with his sword and lance.
Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him;
Here, there, and everywhere, enrag'd he slew:
The French exclaim'd, The devil was in arms;
All the whole army stood agaz'd on him:
His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit,
A Talbot a Talbot! cried out amain,
And rush'd into the bowels of the battle.
Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up,
If sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the coward;
He, being in the vawarda, (placed behind,
With purpose to relieve and follow them,)
Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke.
Hence grew the general wrack and massacre;
Enclosed were they with their enemies:
a Vaward-the van. This is considered by some editors as a misprint for rearward. Steevens and M. Mason explain the passage to be correct, and the explanation, such as it is, we give: "When an army is attacked in the rear, the van becomes the rear in its turn, and of course the reserve."
A base Walloon, to win the dauphin's grace,
Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back;
Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength,
Durst not presume to look once in the face.
BED. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself,
For living idly here, in pomp and ease,
Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his dastard foemen is betrayed.
3 MESS. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner,
And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford:
Most of the rest slaughter'd, or took, likewise.
BED. His ransom there is none but I shall pay :
I'll hale the dauphin headlong from his throne,—
His crown shall be the ransom of my friend;
Four of their lords I 'll change for one of ours.
Farewell, my masters; to my task will I;
Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make,
To keep our great Saint George's feast withal:
Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake.
3 MESS. So you had need; for Orleans is besieg'd;
The English army is grown weak and faint:
The earl of Salisbury craveth supply,
And hardly keeps his men from mutiny,
Since they, so few, watch such a multitude.
EXE. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn,
Either to quell the dauphin utterly,
Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.
BED. I do remember it; and here take my leave,
To go about my preparation.
GLO. I'll to the Tower, with all the haste I can,
To view the artillery and munition;
And then I will proclaim young Henry king.
EXE. To Eltham will I, where the young king is,
Being ordain'd his special governor;
And for his safety there I'll best devise.
WIN. Each hath his place and function to attend :
I am left out; for me nothing remains.
But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office;
The king from Eltham I intend to send,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.
SCENE II.-France. Before Orleans.
Enter CHARLES, with his Forces; ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and others.
CHAR. Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens,
So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late did he shine upon the English side;
Now we are victors, upon us he smiles.
What towns of any moment but we have?
At pleasure here we lie near Orleans;
Otherwhiles, the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.
ALEN. They want their porridge and their fat bull-beeves:
Either they must be dieted like mules,
And have their provender tied to their mouths,
Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice.
REIG. Let's raise the siege: Why live we idly here?
Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear:
Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury;
And he may well in fretting spend his gall,
Nor men nor money hath he to make war.
CHAR. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them.
Now for the honour of the forlorn French :-
Him I forgive my death that killeth me,
When he sees me go back one foot, or fly.
Alarums. They are beaten back by the English, with great loss.
CHARLES, ALENÇON, REIGNIER, and others.
CHAR. Whoever saw the like? what men have I?—
Dogs! cowards! dastards!-I would ne'er have fled,
But that they left me midst my enemies.
REIG. Salisbury is a desperate homicide;
He fighteth as one weary of his life.
The other lords, like lions wanting food,
Do rush upon us as their hungry prey.
ALEN. Froissart, a countryman of ours, records,
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred
During the time Edward the third did reign.
More truly now may this be verified;
For none but Samsons and Goliasses,
It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
Lean raw-bon'd rascals! who would e'er suppose
They had such courage and audacity?
CHAR. Let's leave this town; for they are hair-brain'd slaves,
And hunger will enforce them to be more eager:
Of old I know them; rather with their teeth
The walls they 'll tear down than forsake the siege.
REIG. I think, by some odd gimmersa or device,
Their arms are set like clocks, still to strike on;
Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do.
By my consent, we 'll even let them alone.
ALEN. Be it so.
Enter the BASTARD of ORLEANS.
BAST. Where's the prince dauphin? I have news for him.
CHAR. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us.
BAST. Methinks your looks are sad, your cheer appall'd;
Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence?
Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand:
A holy maid hither with me I bring,
Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven,
Ordained is to raise this tedious siege,
And drive the English forth the bounds of France.
The spirit of deep prophecy she hath,
Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome;
What 's past, and what 's to come, she can descry.
Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words,
For they are certain and unfallible.
CHAR. Go, call her in [Exit Bastard]: But, first, to try her skill,
Reignier, stand thou as dauphin in my place :
Question her proudly, let thy looks be stern:—
By this means shall we sound what skill she hath.
Enter LA PUCELLE, BASTARD of ORLEANS, and others.
REIG. Fair maid, is 't thou wilt do these wondrous feats?
Puc. Reignier, is 't thou that thinkest to beguile me?
Where is the dauphin?-come, come from behind;
I know thee well, though never seen before.
Be not amaz, there's nothing hid from me:
a Gimmers. This word is thus given in the original, but is ordinarily printed gimmals, a word of the same meaning. Bishop Hall uses gimmer in a like sense: "When I saw my precious watch (now through an unhappy fall grown irregular) taken asunder, and lying scattered upon the workman's shopboard; so as here lay a wheel, there the balance, here one gimmer, there another; straight my ignorance was ready to think, when and how will all these ever piece together again in their former order?"
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